Mobile Bill Pay, RDC Outpacing P2P

Major American banks have widely adopted mobile bill pay and remote deposit checking, a new report says, with person-to-person payments lagging behind.

The Celent report – titled “The U.S. Mobile App Landscape: An Annual Evaluation of Mobile Banking at the Top U.S. Banks” – found that 55% of large banks offer bill pay, 31% offer mobile RDC and only 14% have rolled out P2P.

“The banking industry in the U.S. is undergoing a shift to customer centricity. Some of the most active banks in branch right-sizing have also been the most outspoken about digital channel development,” Celent said.

“While a few banks have resisted change, there’s a broad consensus that digital channels and mobile represent the path forward. Mobile banking vastly expands a bank’s ability to reach new and existing customers, and while there is significant movement by some, others face a long road ahead,” the Boston-based research and advisory firm said.

“The channel is still relatively new, but leaders in the digital channel space are beginning to take offerings into the realm of value-added services that are context-sensitive, timely, and utilize Big Data. There’s a large disparity among digital offerings—industry leaders are light-years ahead of the laggards.”